Parliamentarians on all sides of the UK political spectrum showed enthusiastic support for industry-led action group www.greeningofstreaming.org, as they focus on power efficiency and long term sustainability among streaming infrastructure and technology providers.
Many large broadcasters, telecoms and internet providers, streaming companies and consumer electronics providers attended the event, collectively representing more than a trillion pounds in business. Among them were many who are already members of Greening of Streaming.
Greening of Streaming is an association focussed on industry collaboration to reduce the energy used to provide streaming services. This energy demand is estimated to be of the same order of magnitude to the aviation industry.
Our Parliamentary Public Launch event had two aims:
To present the organisation to policy makers and parliamentarians as a point of contact with the industry to enable both parties to work together to initiate industry-led reforms.
To encourage new members to join.
There was great interest in the event, with over 100 people from more than 40 organisations attending.
In a galvanising show of cross-party unity, the event had Parliamentary Sponsorship from both Dr Alan Whitehead MP, Shadow Minister for Energy (Lab.) and from Matt Warman MP, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital Infrastructure (Con).
It was exciting to see industry and all sides of the political spectrum come together to drive collaboration that makes a real-world difference.
Dom Robinson of id3as.com, founders of Greening of Streaming, provided the background of how the organisation came to be, and highlighted the core values of 'no greenwashing' and a focus on overall reduction of the energy consumed by streaming.
Adam Curwin, Executive Director, Greening of Streaming, followed up with a description of the numerous working groups that have formed, and some of the early discoveries from these efforts. He also spoke about how Greening of Streaming is fostering 'joined-up thinking' across the supply chain and global legislation and policy makers.
Tim Siglin of Help Me Stream Research Foundation, and founding member of Greening of Streaming, then presented the responses from a specially commissioned public survey to explore consumer awareness and streaming habits.
The survey asked them to look at their streaming use, and any sense of ownership they might have relating to their energy consumption associated with streaming. It became clear that while the sense of personal responsibility increases as the use of streaming does, the users did not individually feel empowered to drive change, and so action needs to be, first and foremost, industry-led .
We feel that this strongly reinforces the values underpinning the Greening of Streaming initiative.
We'd like to thank the many that attended. There was real excitement and a strong sense of support. We have had new members sign up immediately and we are looking forward to engaging more over the next few weeks!
Do reach out if you are interested to join the discussion: join@greeningofstreaming.org
The slides and Dom and Adam's speeches can be accessed here:
We will be releasing photos and videos over the next few weeks so stay connected to our social feeds (found at the foot of this blog post!)
Comments